2022 BMW Alpina B8 Gran Coupe

The Alpina B8 is another fantastic product from a company that isn't quite to BMW what AMG is to Mercedes. Alpina is its own company, noted as an official automaker by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, and has its own factory in Bavaria where it puts the finishing touches on some of the best, fastest, and most expensive BMWs.

The latest from the factory in Buchloe, Germany, is the 2022 Alpina B8 Gran Coupe, obviously based on the BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe. The Alpina gets its own engine tuning. This twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 makes 612 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque. That's fed through an Alpina-tuned eight-speed automatic to all four wheels.

The full-size Gran Coupe doesn't have many competitors at this price. However, the powerful Audi RS7 certainly qualifies and the Mercedes-AMG GT 4-door might be cross-shopped as well. Of course, shoppers in this segment will have to decide if the Alpina B8's slightly higher price is worth it compared to the M8 Competition Gran Coupe.

The BMW Alpina B8 Gran Coupe is by far the most elegant 8 Series currently available. At first glance, you might mistake it for an entry-level model, but the devil is in the details. Alpina's tweaks are more subtle and would only be noticed by a card-carrying gearhead for the optimized aerodynamics it represents. At the front it has larger air intakes, while the rear apron has been redesigned to house a diffuser. The lip spoiler is also hardly noticeable, but you'll undoubtedly notice the famous 21-inch Alpina Classic 20-spoke wheels. Icon adaptive LED headlights with Laserlight, Shadowline exterior trim, and a power panoramic moonroof are standard. An M Carbon roof can be specified additionally. At the back, there are four large quad tailpipes emitting a wonderful V8 roar.

The B8's overall length is 200.5 inches, riding on a 119-inch wheelbase. Its width is 76.1 inches and the car is 56 inches tall. The B8 is slightly taller than the M8 Gran Coupe, making it a little easier to get in and out. Overall, these dimensions speak to what is a large vehicle that doesn't quite shrink around you like older BMWs. The manufacturer claims a curb weight of 4,831 pounds, significantly more than the M8 Gran Coupe's 4,295 lbs curb weight. That's a difference of 536 lbs or t average-sized humans. Since all of that weight goes toward additional luxury, we don't mind.

The good news is that the two best colors add nothing to the price. Alpina Blue and Alpina Green cost a total of zero dollars. Other no-cost options include Alpine White and metallics like Carbon Black, Black Sapphire, Mineral White, Sunset Orange, Bluestone, and Barcelona Blue.

Dravit Grey, Tanzanite Blue II, and Aventurin Red cost $1,950 each. Frozen Bluestone is the most expensive paint option, retailing for $5,000.

Alpina keeps the twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 as used in the M850i. It's a highly adaptable engine, and in base M850i specification, it produces 523 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque. M8 Competition spec produces 617 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque, meaning it's only the horsepower that increases. Alpine takes a different approach, more suited to the car's grand touring nature. After the German tuning firm is done with it, the 4.4-liter twin-turbo produces 612 hp - but it's the 590 lb-ft of torque that matters.

Alpina also sticks with the BMW xDrive all-wheel-drive system and the ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic transmission. Alpina does give the AWD system a unique calibration to make it more docile than the angry M8 Gran Coupe.

Alpina claims that the B8 will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds and on to a top speed of 201 mph. Keep in mind that if you fit all-season tires, the maximum speed drops to 168 mph. Alpina also says it can do the quarter-mile in 11.5 seconds, so while it's a grand tourer, it can undoubtedly kick some supercar butt in a straight line.

All-wheel drive is the standard in this segment these days. It's the inevitable result of the German horsepower war, which has resulted in sedans and station wagons with more power than supercars. Some of them will give you the option of locking in RWD for some slidey action, but this undignified feature is not standard or available for the B8.

Though both the B8 and M850i feature the fundamentally similar 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 and the ZF-sourced eight-speed, in practice, they feel different thanks to the addition of the company's Switch-Tronic software, which takes advantage of that extra torque. It doesn't quite jump off the line, but when you keep your foot down for a few seconds, things get scary fast. The kicker is that once you hit triple digits, it feels like you're going much slower. No other powertrain configurations are on offer for the B8 but this is about as good as it gets, so that's no problem.

Passing speed is downright hilarious, with a rush of torque that holds strong as the gears change. If you break free of some 65-mph traffic to an open highway, try not to hit its terminal velocity, because you will be tempted. We've said this for a while, but ZF builds a torque-converter automatic that's about 99% as fast as a DCT, with none of the drawbacks.

As for drawbacks, with all of that leather and insulation, you need to have the windows down in a tunnel to hear the fantastic noise this car makes. It's also a tiny bit slower off the line than the standard M8 four-door, even with that extra torque. But this is still a "Gran Coupe" grand touring car, so who cares if it's 0.3 seconds slower to 60 mph?

The Alpina B8 is quieter than the BMW M8, both in road and wind noise. The front axle struts feature hydro mounts, which soften the ride a little, as do the Eibach springs tuned for this application. However, it has stiffer suspension strut support mounts, which - when combined with the low-profile tires - make for a sportier ride than expected.

It's not harsh from the driver's seat, and those steam roller tires can cover most potholes without incident, but we'd like it to feel even more Buick-like, as that's what the exterior (and interior, for that matter) prepare you for. On the bright side, direction changes happen quickly and without much body roll. The rear-steering system is also excellent, allowing us to enter and exit small parking lots and spaces without having to three-point turn.

It has modes ranging from Comfort Plus to Sport Plus, with a few in between. We found the normal Comfort mode great for longer distances, and the power is still plentiful. Those tires and wheels, which look great, need to be swapped when temperatures drop below 40 degrees, as this car was a handful on frosty mornings with the Pirelli summer tires.

The Individual mode is always key. You can set your prime settings - for us it's full Sport Plus power and Comfort Plus suspension - and just jump back to it whenever the need strikes. You can adjust the effort of the steering too, but there's not a ton of road feel either way.

According to the EPA, the B8 will consume 17/24/19 mpg city/highway/combined. Considering the B8 will likely be used as a long-distance cruiser, that highway figure is quite good.

It comes standard with an 18-gallon gas tank, which means you can cover 342 miles before pulling over for fuel. It was cold during our week with the car, and we weren't ripping around as much as we wanted to, but we ended up using almost a full tank of gas and returning 17.7 mpg combined.

Any BMW 8 Series is already a good starting point, offering a high-quality interior with all the latest technology. But Alpina's mission is to elevate the interior even further into the realm of cars like Bentley and Aston Martin.

As standard, the B8 comes with lavish materials like extended Merino leather and a headliner with an Anthracite Alcantara finish. Unlike in the two-door 8 Series, there's a comfortable and much more accommodating rear seat. Since this is a high-end BMW, you get all of the comfort and convenience features included as standard, including four-zone climate control, heated and ventilated front seats, and soft-close doors.

While the 8 Series two-door coupe has extremely cramped rear seats, the Gran Coupe is a lot better, if not as accommodating as a 7 Series would be. The front area feels spacious in every dimension, but the back seat is a little claustrophobic. It measures the same as the regular 8-Series: 54.6 inches of shoulder room, 36.6 inches of legroom, 37 inches of headroom, but it feels tighter with space for two and a big center console. There are three seatbelts so officially three people could sit back there, but we wouldn't advise it. We would accept two adults and a child seat.

As mentioned earlier, the Alpina B8 is taller than the M8 Gran Coupe which means that ingress and egress are a little better.

Extended Merino leather is standard, and you can go the no-cost route or opt for full Merino leather with a wider color palette, in which case you get charged an additional $2,000. The standard Merino leather color options are Ivory White, Night Blue/Black, Tartufo/Black, Fiona Red/Black, Cognac, and just plain Black. The available BMW Individual colors are Ivory White/Night Blue, Ivory White/Tortufo, Ivory White, Night Blue/Black, Tartufo/Black, Fiona Red/Black, Cognac, and Black.

The Alpina B8 gets a hand-finished Lavalina leather steering wheel with signature blue and green stitching. The rim is thick like an arthritis golf club grip, which makes it very comfortable in the hand. In addition to another logo (with crankshafts and intakes that were Alpina's first specialty), the signature color stitching looks great.

Cabin trim is standard in Alpina Walnut Nature Black, although options include Fineline Copper Wood, Ash Grain Grey-Metallic Wood, Aluminum Dark Trace, and Carbon Fiber. Individual Piano Black and Ash Black Silver Wood are also available, but the latter two options may delay the production of your B8.

BMW suggests that the B8 has a 15.5-cubic foot trunk, which is the same as the standard 8 Series Gran Coupe. You could fold the rear seats down in a 40/20/40 split if you needed more, but it makes more sense to have the butler just bring around another car if you needed to load a bunch of stuff. We suspect most B8 customers buy the car knowing that some sacrifices have to be made.

On the inside, all doors have door pockets, and both front and rear passengers get dual cupholders. Front passengers also get a storage compartment underneath the center armrest.

We're talking about a car that costs nearly $140,000, so Alpina throws almost everything in as standard. There are only a handful of options, which isn't something that's typically associated with any BMW.

As standard, it comes with a power moonroof, a power trunk lid, gesture control, keyless entry with push-button start, remote engine start, advanced vehicle and key memory, heated and ventilated power-adjustable front sports seats with driver's seat memory, four-zone climate control, a power rear sunshade, rear side window shades, a power-adjustable steering column, heated armrests and steering wheel, soft-closing doors, ambient interior lighting, and heated rear outboard seats. These features are only around half of the complete list.

Live Cockpit Professional deserves a mention, though, with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and head-up display.

Standard driver assistance features include Active Guard with lane departure warning, frontal collision warning, and automatic city collision mitigation with automatic braking. Dynamic cruise control is included and a rearview camera is standard, naturally.

We have two words for you: gesture control. Turn it off the day you buy this vehicle and never turn it on again. It reacts when you go for the shifter, it reacts when you reach for the screen or your phone in the center, seemingly whether you do the motions or not. There are motions for muting and turning the volume up and skipping tracks, but it always happens at the most inopportune moment. It's less of a big deal if you're not 75 minutes into a 130-minute podcast and you have to find where you were.

Otherwise, iDrive works great. We've been using versions of it for years but between the tactile rotary dial, the redundant buttons, and the touchscreen, it's simple to use. We always love the wireless Apple CarPlay too, especially when it's paired with wireless charging. Android Auto, Bluetooth connectivity, and SiriusXM with 360L are all-inclusive.

The infotainment screen measures 10.25 inches and the B8 comes standard with navigation. Sound is channeled through a 16-speaker, 464-watt Harman Kardon surround sound system, and while it's the only option for the B8, it's a good one.

An Alpina B8 reliability review has not yet been published by J.D. Power since this is a brand-new car, but since it's so heavily based on the BMW 8 Series, we can take a look at that car's reliability record. No recalls are noted for the 2022 8 Series Gran Coupe, but the 2021 BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe has been recalled three times. Issues included a 48V battery connection being misassembled, braking assistance and ABS loss, and a rearview camera image malfunction.

The B8 is covered by a four-year/50,000-mile limited warranty and a four-year/unlimited mileageroadside assistance program.

Neither the NHTSA nor the IIHS provides a thorough review of the 2022 BMW Alpina B8 Gran Coupe. That's not surprising, given how expensive it is. Other modern BMWs like the 5 Series have returned strong crash results, so we have little doubt that the B8 will return a similarly strong rating if tested.

Standardsafety items include dual front airbags, front-side airbags, and full-length head airbags. It also comes standard with the usual safety acronyms, including ABS and EBD. The traction and stability control is adaptive, giving you on, off, or semi-on options.

On the driver assistance side, you get the prerequisite rearview camera and dynamic cruise control, along with a head-up display. The Active Guard suite contains lane departure warning, frontal collision warning, and automatic city collision mitigation with automatic braking. A fatigue and focus alert system is also in place.

On the options list, the Driving Assistance Professional package will add a host of features, including the active driving assistant, extended traffic jam assistant, parking assistant and active park distance control, active blind-spot detection, and a surround-view monitor with a 3D view.

So the Alpina B8 is a lot pricier than the M850i xDrive Gran Coupe, which starts at $100k including destination. It's even $10,000 more than the M8 Competition version, but the Alpina is the better big Bimmer option hands down. On the highway, it's just as fast, maybe even faster at certain speeds, and the only thing it won't do is work a racetrack. But how many 8 Series drivers are actually taking it to weekend practice? Instead, most will enjoy the B8's plush cabin and smooth ride.

For over $20,000 less, the Audi RS7 is a tempting alternative and it's nearly as quick. However, it lacks the exclusivity afforded by the Alpina badge. Perhaps what's most impressive about the Alpina B8 is that it's an even nicer grand tourer than the regular 8 Series Gran Coupe, while being almost as quick as the M8 Gran Coupe. That's a recipe that's hard to resist.

The price of the BMW Alpina B8 begins at an MSRP of $139,900 in the USA, excluding any options and the destination and handling fee of $995.

There is only one model, and it's equipped with a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8, eight-speed automatic, and AWD system from BMW. Alpina does update every single one of these components to give the car its own unique character. On the outside, it has full LED lights, 21-inch 20-spoke alloy wheels, a power trunk li, and a moonroof. The interior is adorned with Merino leather, Alcantara, and contrast stitching. Standard equipment includes four-zone climate control, heated and ventilated power-adjustable front seats, heated rear outboard seats, a power-adjustable steering column, heated armrests and steering wheel, soft-closing doors, and ambient interior lighting.

The infotainment system consists of a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and a 10.25-inch center display. Both are borrowed from BMW, but Alpina put its unique spin on the instrument cluster. It comes standard with live navigation, over-the-air updates, an intelligent personal assistant, Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto. The infotainment is connected to a 16-speaker Harman Kardon sound system.

Safety-wise, it comes standard with dynamic cruise control, lane departure warning, frontal collision warning, and automatic city collision mitigation with automatic braking, to name just a few. A full-color head-up display is standard.

There's not much you can add to the Alpina B8 Gran Coupe. You can add some more chrome to the exterior at no extra charge or an Alcantara headliner in the same color as the seats, also for free. An M Carbon roof retails for $2,800, but it doesn't make sense on a car like this. We'd suggest keeping the standard glass moonroof.

The Driving Assistance Professional Package costs $1,800 and adds a steering and lane keeping assistant, a lane change assistant, an emergency stop assistant, and evasion aid assist. You also get extended traffic jam assist, parking assistant plus, active park distance control, a drive recorder, active blind-spot detection, and a surround-view camera system with a 3D display. Considering all of the technology, this package is a bargain.

The 2022 Alpina B8 xDrive Gran Coupe, besides vying for the longest car name, is an expensive vehicle at just over $140K with destination. You can get several special paint colors ranging between about $2,000 and $5,000, but you can't go wrong with Alpina Green Metallic. You can get 20- or 21-inch wheels with performance tires. If you live anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon we'd stick with the all seasons, but either option is no charge. The smaller ones still come with sticky low-profile tires, just rated for worse weather.

There are some interesting color options for the interior including a Fiona Red, which we love, and a Night Blue, which we also love. We'll accept one of the browns, but colored leather is making a comeback. Full Merino leather costs $2,000, so we'd skip that too. All we want is the hue. The Driver Assistance Professional Package is still a $1,800 extra, which adds a bunch of important features specified in the previous section. Those should be standard, but we'd have to spend the extra money. There's an option for a carbon-fiber roof too, which our tester had, but we don't see the need.

All in, without a special color, we're at $142,695 including the destination charge.

The Audi RS7 is not quite as sharp and engaging as the M8 Gran Coupe. That's fine, however, as that makes it more of a rival to the Alpina B8 Gran Coupe. The Audi represents a massive saving at $118,500, though we can't see where Audi cut corners. Audis are renowned for their luxurious, high-quality interiors, and the same is valid here. The RS7 is down on power. It uses a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 that produces 591 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque. Even so, it's only marginally slower to 60 mph. It takes 3.5 seconds versus the Alpina's 3.3 seconds which isn't a time difference you'd notice.

The Audi is just as stacked with standard features. You get quilted Valcona leather, quad-zone climate control, soft-close doors, and more. In short, there's nothing you get in the Alpina that you don't get in the Audi.

The only thing that counts in the Alpina's favor is exclusivity, but you have to wonder whether it's worth paying $21,400 more, just for that? We don't think so, which is why we'd have the Audi.

The M8 is around $10k less expensive, but it's a bit more of a hooligan. It has a stiffer ride, and you can engage 2WD, in which case you can smoke the rear tires all day long. It's faster to 60 mph than the B8, but not so much that you'd notice.

Our biggest problem with the large M cars is that they seem to suffer from an identity crisis. The M8 Gran Coupe has so many driving modes. In addition to that, the suspension is too stiff in Sport mode, and while the steering is satisfyingly heavy, it doesn't provide much feedback.

BMW's M department is at its best when it has one clear mission for a car. Just look at the M2 CS. It is, by far, the best M product of the last decade. To us, the 8 Series works so much better as a grand tourer, which is why we'd have the B8. Or save even more money and get the M850i.